


Dreams Of Ice And Fire

by providing_leverage



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Both just kinda assume their soulmate will be female, M/M, Soulmate AU, they're in for a surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:13:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25998073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/providing_leverage/pseuds/providing_leverage
Summary: Some say the dreams are gifts from the good spirits, others an old curse from darker ones. Most dismiss it as hearsay and craziness. The oldest stories revolve around the dreams and the happiness they brought people, but the ones written in the past hundred years highlight the tragedy and misfortune soulmates bring each other.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 169





	Dreams Of Ice And Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I found a Zukka Bingo Board on Tumblr an hour ago and now this is here and a longer fif is brewing in the back of my mind. Link at the bottom because Idk how to do the handy link that takes you directly there

Some say the dreams are gifts from the good spirits, others an old curse from darker ones. Most dismiss it as hearsay and craziness. The oldest stories revolve around the dreams and the happiness they brought people, but the ones written in the past hundred years highlight the tragedy and misfortune soulmates bring each other.

Zuko is seven or eight when he has the first dreams, at least the first he remembers once he wakes. It’s short and blurry, more sensation than sight. Cold and white blurs, laughter. The prince wakes in his vast bed chilly but smiling.

He tells Mother about the dream when they’re eating breakfast, before Azula wakes up. Father had an early meeting again but Zuko didn’t mind that much since it meant he was allowed to talk at the breakfast table without being scolded. 

When he describes the little flashes of what he thinks is snow (he’s heard all about snow from the Admirals who had been stationed at one of the Poles, though this hadn’t seemed scary or deadly at all) Mother’s face goes a bit pale. She instructs him not to tell anyone about this dream or any like it.

Though confused, he does as she says. It’s not until he’s older and Mother is gone that he realizes what these dreams are. Flashes of his soulmate’s life, through her eyes. Her memories and emotions bleeding into his dreams as his must for her. 

Meaning his soulmate, whoever they are, is at one of the Poles, where it’s always snowy. And Zuko has never seen any sign of Fire Nation colors or materials, so she probably isn’t Fire Nation. 

He remembers all the stories about soulmates who were from different backgrounds, mostly royalty and commoners, and how they almost never got happy endings. They were too different to be together, even if it was fate. 

To find any story about people from different nations who dreamed of each other, Zuko has to search deep into the library. The one text he does find is from before the Hundred Year War and the language is so different it’s hard to understand. 

The story is about the parents of the last Earth Kingdom Avatar, Avatar Kyoshi. An Air Nomad fell in love with a man from the Earth Kingdom and ran away to become a criminal with him. Because of this, her bending became a lot weaker and she became an outcast. The two never even learned of their daughter’s true destiny because they abandoned her to run a gang of thieves and eventually died of some sickness.

Zuko wipes the tears from his eyes, hides the book away, and resolves to never mention the dreams to anyone again. Having a soulmate from the Fire Nation was one thing, having a soulmate from the Water Tribes would only end in tragedy. And probably disgrace, since the people of the Tribes were uncultured and wild, not marriage material for a price.

Especially not since Zuko is now being groomed for the throne. Despite his subpar grasp of firebending, Father still begins his training to be Fire Lord one day. Master Piandao comes to the palace to personally train Zuko in the art of sword fighting, which Zuko thinks is the greatest thing ever. 

Azula thinks it’s stupid, but that’s only because she’s a horrible sword fighter. His sister spits that it’s no substitute for being a good bender but Zuko knows she’s just bitter that he’s better at something than her for once. 

Uncle Iroh, who returns from the year he spent traveling the world after everything that happened with Lu Ten and Father becoming Fire Lord, teaches him of battle strategy and tries to help Zuko improve his bending. 

He learns to ignore his soulmate dreams, even when they become spiked with pain. Some tragedy has befallen the person on the other end of them, something to do with the Fire Nation. He catches glimpses of red uniforms and is washed with terror and despair at the sight of them.

Things are as good as they’ve been since Mother was here, until they’re not.

Zuko is allowed to sit in on some of his Father’s meetings. It is a great honor but he isn’t worthy of it. He messes up and he pays for it. Agni, does he pay for it. As he is tended to by the medics, drugged as they can get him but still able to feel the burns across his face, Zuko wonders if his soulmate feels an echo of this.

He falls asleep thinking of fire hurtling towards his face, dreams of a fire under more stars than he’s ever seen in his life with fish roasting over the flames, and wakes on his Uncle’s ship in a dark room that someone had removed all the candles from.

___

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a soulmate, Momma tells him and his little sister one story night. She’s lucky and the spirits had blessed her with dreams that told her that Dad and her were meant to be together.

Sokka’s parents might be annoying sometimes, and he didn’t see why they had to kiss  _ all the time, _ but he wants what they had. 

He makes up stories about his soulmate, what she’ll be like, how they’ll finally meet and realize that they’re perfect for eachother, the adventures the two of them will have.

Katara, who’s always been a downer, reminds him that not even half of the people in the world get soulmate dreams. That very night, he dreams of a garden. It’s huge and so colorful and there’s a little pond with weird animals Sokka’s never seen before. When he puts his feet in the water, they’re way too pale and the water is weirdly warm for the outside. 

It’s  _ undoubtedly _ a soulmate dream, which he takes great pleasure in rubbing in Katara’s face. 

The dreams are amazing. There are so many colors Sokka never knew existed that his soulmate sees  _ all the time.  _ He’s so jealous. Red is the color he sees the most, which he knows the name of because that old Fire Nation ship has a red sail. 

The ship is too dangerous to go near so he never gets a good look at it or the sail. His only non blue, white, or grey color comes from the sky when the sun rises and sets, and his dreams.

As he grows older, Sokka will forget the sound of his mother’s voice, the color of her eyes, the taste of the food she would make. But he’ll never ever forget the day she dies or how it broke his family.

He’ll never forget the color of the men’s uniforms or the symbol they wear on their armor and flags. The same symbol he’s seen a hundred times in his dreams and never questioned the meaning of. 

That day, his belief in the spirits, in soulmates, in  _ his _ soulmate and their future, crumble.

His father sails away to fight the Fire Nation at war and Sokka stays home to fight the Fire Nation in his dreams.

___

Zukko stays away from the Water Tribes for as long as possible. They search all the Air Temples for clues and then drift around the Earth Kingdom’s waters with no real plan, not that Zuko can or will admit that.

The world is a big place but three years is a lot of time. Eventually he has no choice but to go North or South in hopes that one of the Poles would yield better results.  _ Anything  _ would be better than the nothing he has now.

The North is locked down and his father has the navy stationed there, looking for any weakness. The South had been sacked years ago but since it held no real value other than snow and ice, it had been mostly left alone except for routine searches for waterbenders.

Getting close to the North at all, much less close enough to search it, would be almost impossible so Zuko orders the captain to sail south and decides that as long as he doesn't look to close, there will be no chance that he’ll recognize any landmarks from his dreams. As long as he avoids new people (which he honestly already does) he’ll never have to worry about one day seeing his own face in his dreams.

Going South pays off. After weeks of being even more touchy than usual and his firebending even worse than normal, a beacon of blue energy lights up the sky. No matter what Uncle says, Zuko knows in his heart that the world is shifting. Something is coming, his destiny is upon him at last.

“Helmsman, head a course for the light.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I found a Zukka Bingo Board on Tumblr an hour ago and now this is here and a longer fif is brewing in the back of my mind. Link at the bottom because Idk how to do the handy link that takes you directly there


End file.
